TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- Some schools celebrate the start of college basketball practice with big events like a Midnight Madness practice.

The Alabama basketball team started practice Friday and waited until Thursday to talk about it.

Can you say "football school"?

It's a shame. There's plenty to talk about when it comes to Alabama basketball heading into the 2012-13 season.

At least, there was plenty for senior guard Andrew Steele and sophomore guard Levi Randolph to talk about on the first day that players were available to talk to members of the news media.

Here were some highlights. ...

Steele talked about Moussa Gueye, the 7-foot junior center who played only the second half of last season -- and sparingly, at that -- because of a preseason knee injury:

"He's got his legs back, so I think you'll see a more athletic Moussa. I think he'll make his defensive presence even better, and I think he'll be improved offensively, too. I think everybody took major steps forward, and that's what it takes when you want your team to get better."

Randolph on forward Devonta Pollard, a freshman phenom:

"Devonta's great. He's a great guy, he's a good player." What kind of player? "What kind of player is he? He's a basketball player." How's he going to impress us? "Just his energy. His skill. He can fly, he can jump, he can shoot, he can dribble. He's going to be a great asset to the team." Pollard's position? "He's a guy who can play all over the court that can play multiple positions. So I'm not sure how or what we'll do as far as everybody's positions yet, because it's early still, but we'll see."

Steele on perimeter shooting, a weakness last season:

"Our mindset is going to change. I think we had such a dominant low post option in JaMychal (Green), you know, four-time SEC kind of player, so obviously we wanted to go through him. We've got confidence in our post players this year, too, but I think with the pieces we've got, I think first it'll open up the court better, I think it'll help us all out a lot, and you know we've got people who can penetrate, so I think teams will try to stop that, and we'll get more open looks."

Randolph on the team spending time in the offseason working on outside shooting:

"The whole team did. We had summer workouts, we did a lot of shooting drills, a lot of perimeter work, so we just look to get better in that area."

Steele on where he fits in to this team as the only senior:

"Same place, you know. Try to make plays and make everybody's job easy. Go out there and be a leader, be one of our better defenders and, you know, just each game brings on a different role, but whatever way I can help our team, I'll take on that role."